Quick Guide: Install Portainer to Manage Docker & Kubernetes

Introduction

Portainer is an open‑source Docker and Kubernetes management UI that lets users manage containers, images, networks, volumes, Swarm and Kubernetes clusters through a web browser without using the command line.

Check Environment

System information:

# cat /etc/redhat-release
Rocky Linux release 9.3 (Blue Onyx)
# uname -a
Linux Rocky9StoneCrm003080 5.14.0-362.18.1.el9_3.0.1.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Feb 11 13:49:23 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Docker version output:

# docker version
Client: Docker Engine - Community
Version: 25.0.3
API version: 1.44
Go version: go1.21.6
Git commit: 4debf41
Built: Tue Feb 6 21:14:42 2024
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Context: default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
Engine:
Version: 25.0.3
API version: 1.44 (minimum version 1.24)
Go version: go1.21.6
Git commit: f417435
Built: Tue Feb 6 21:13:06 2024
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Experimental: false
containerd:
Version: 1.6.28
GitCommit: ae07eda36dd25f8a1b98dfbf587313b99c0190bb
runc:
Version: 1.1.12
GitCommit: v1.1.12-0-g51d5e94
docker-init:
Version: 0.19.0
GitCommit: de40ad0

Install Portainer Server

Run the following command to start the Portainer container:

# docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 -p 9000:9000 \
  --name portainer \
  --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v portainer_data:/data \
  portainer/portainer-ce:2.26.1

Ports 9443 (HTTPS) and 9000 (HTTP) are exposed.

Access the UI

Open a browser and navigate to http://<IP>:9000 for HTTP or https://<IP>:9443 for HTTPS.

First Login

Set an admin username and password. The default user is admin with a custom password. After login, the local Docker host appears as “local”.

Add Docker Client (Portainer Agent)

Run the agent container on each Docker host you want to manage:

# docker run -d \
  -p 9001:9001 \
  --name portainer_agent \
  --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v /var/lib/docker/volumes:/var/lib/docker/volumes \
  -v /:/host \
  portainer/agent:2.26.1

After the agent is running, it appears in the Portainer web UI.